The Morning Report
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Couple of things:
- A few of you will remember the 840-square foot home in Ocean Beach that I wrote about in June.
Remember, it was for rent at the same time it was for sale. I had thought its asking price compared to what they wanted to rent it for was a sign of the times in the housing market. Turns out, the home is a sign of the times but a different kind of sign: It is now in the foreclosure process.
- About the Chargers stadium post below, I had a couple of thoughts for the many people who sent me responses.
Many of you mentioned this story in the U-T the other day.
I had a couple of thoughts about that story. The article revealed that four pillars of the traditional San Diego business community had been mulling alternative plans for a new Chargers stadium to ensure that there is more discussion if Chula Vista and Oceanside don’t come through for the team.
First and foremost, this last bullet point in a list of potential alternative solutions was just plain bizarre:
Building a stadium in Barrio Logan, a neighborhood south of downtown San Diego. (Former Copley Newspapers Editor Herb) Klein said this idea was his, although he does not have a location or development plan.
“Any idea involving an existing neighborhood is problematic,” said Mark Fabiani, the Chargers’ attorney and spokesman. “You’d be displacing homes and businesses, and it’s not something we’d want to be a part of.”
There’s a solution! Bulldoze the poorer neighborhood! Those people won’t mind.
OK, I’m done with that but how funny.
There are some more serious things to think about that were in that article. First, many of you were intrigued by the proposed deal that would construct a new basketball arena and football stadium in Mission Valley along with housing for SDSU students and staff. It would then mean the end of the Sports Arena in Midway, which would be replaced with, presumably, condos.
Like Mission Valley, the Sports Arena area is well suited to handle more congestion and intense density. Right? Right??
Reader Basic Civics wrote:
The thing that interesting is how clever the politics are around this deal and where the subsidy is gonna from… Our Cal State system… and Affordable housing is a great way to sell the deal. That being said I could see myself actually getting behind the proposal if it was truly affordable to and properly planned to deal with the traffic and noise that college communities bring. It is an interesting counter to your post.
It is interesting. This is hardly a new concept. Ernie Hahn II, the general manager of the Sports Arena has floated a similar idea. County Supervisor Dianne Jacob brought it up and she was ignored. She didn’t really champion it as much as just mutter it.
But as Basic Civics deduced, this latest has a compelling new emphasis on the involvement of SDSU. The university has had trouble with neighbors for years. It could potentially ease them by agreeing to forego its expansion plans and instead put them in Mission Valley.
But there is at least one serious problem with this proposal: It’s hard to imagine that a basketball team is going to make it to San Diego any time soon. No NBA team is coming to San Diego until San Diego builds a new arena. And I can’t imagine San Diegans subsidizing a new arena just so that an NBA team might come to San Diego.
Rob Davis did a good job explaining the challenge in this story about National City’s quest for a team.
I don’t think the story or the proposal is necessarily a “counter” to my post. I was providing an explanation of what I think happened to the deal and how, looking back a year later, the homebuilders and Chargers probably could not have financed construction of a new stadium in Mission Valley like they thought with the revenue from new condos. At least, I think, it would have been a much bigger risk.